Herbert Lange, born 29 September 1909 in Menzlin in the Province of Pomerania, worked as criminal investigator at the Gestapo in Aachen before the war and took part in the Polish Campaign as member of Einsatzgruppe VI, which settled as Security Police headquarters in Poznan [1] (click or hover over footnotes to see references). For a short period of time until 16 October 1939, he was commandant of the Übergangslager (transition camp) Fort VII in Poznan [2]. Lange became the leader of a special detail (Sonderkommando) founded by and named after him, which specialized in the killing of mentally ill people with poison gas. In late 1941, he moved on to establish Chelmno (Kulmhof) extermination camp to wipe out the Jews of the Warthegau as well. He was replaced in Spring 1942 as commandant of the extermination camp by Hans Bothmann and employed as investigator in the RSHA. He supposedly died during the battle of Berlin at the end of the war.

Fort VII

Fort VII in Poznan; ref. 2, p. 13

The first Nazi gassings of people took place in Fort VII in Poznan in late 1939. Some experiments with the two most promising killing agents hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide may have been tried in casemates of the camp as early as October 1939. What seems like an experimental gassing with hydrogen cyanide soaked pellets (Degesch's "Zyklon") was mentioned en passant by the RSHA driver Wilhelm F.
[3]
:

"Right after the Polish Campaign I was sent with a group of officers to a town in Poland, I do not remember its name. There was a red haired Untersturmführer, who was called Becker as I now recall. This Becker made experiments with poison gas. A number of people were locked in a casemate and gas was introduced into the casemate through venting pipes. I remember exactly how Becker dropped something into the pipes."

"I have seen that Becker fetched a box with cans. He threw them [into the air shafts]."

From November 1939, mentally ill people were systematically killed with carbon monoxide gas in Fort VII [4]. Under the command of Lange the inmates of the asylums near Poznan were driven to the camp, locked in casemates and suffocated with carbon monoxide from pressurized steel bottles. The corpses were buried in mass graves in a forest near Oborniki, 30 km North of Poznan. The handling of the corpses was done by Polish prisoners of Fort VII assigned to Sonderkommando Lange, among those Henryk Mania and Henryk Maliczak, who testified on the killings after the war.
Henryk Mania:
[5]

"The next stage of work under the command of the Sonderkommando Lange was the removal of the mentally ill. These people were brought with vehicles from asylums in Koscian, Dziekanka, Gniezno, Owinska. Patients were first administered an injection to calm them down, and they were then put into one bunker at Fort VII and were euthanized with gas introduced in special cylinders from Berlin. To seal the bunker, all the openings were pasted with clay."

"We were initially employed in transporting and burying the corpses of the mentally ill. The first victims came from the psychiatric hospital in [Owinska]. They were transported by truck to Fort VII and gassed in a bunker the door and window of which had been hermetically sealed. I saw how members of the camp staff and others, dressed in SS uniforms, observed the gassing through a window in the [door of the] bunker. A special group of approximately ten SS men, not Fort VII personnel, transported the mentally ill from the hospital in [Owinska] and gassed them. This group was commanded by an SS man named Lange [...]. The gassing occurred in this way two or three times over a period of several days. [...] The victims were calm; I suppose they had been tranquillized with injections. Our role in this activity consisted in carrying the corpses of the victims to trucks which transported them to forests near the town of Oborniki. Here we threw the corpses into previously dug pits."

On 12 or 13 December 1939, a demonstration gassing of mentally ill patients was conducted for Nazi leaders in Fort VII as described by Himmler's adjutant Joachim Peiper:
[7]

"One day in Winter 1939/40 I accompanied Himmler on a trip. In course of this trip there was an Euthanasia action in Posen. The inmates of an asylum near Posen were killed with poison gas. This action took place with a number of invited guests. At that time, I had the impression that the audience should be shown that this was a painless death. The mentally ill were led into prepared casemates, the door of which was furnished with a plexiglas window. The mentally ill entered the casemates singing and laughing. After the doors were closed, the mentally ill were still laughing and conversing, and then they immediately sat down on the straw, and soon laid down under the influence of gas. They did not move any more. This ended the demonstration for the guests."

The method of carbon monoxide bottle gassings was subsequently implemented at the Euthanasia
killing site Brandenburg in the Reich.[8]

Mobile Mass Killing Unit

In January 1940, Lange moved on from the stationary gas
chambers in Fort VII to a motorized mobile homicidal gas chamber. The vehicle and its operation was again described by the Sonderkommando prisoners Mania and Maliczak.

"A special vehicle drove the ill near to the dug out pits. It was similiar to a moving van and hermitically closed. The driver's cabin was seperated. The van was lined with metal sheet in the inside I think. I don't remember an enscription. It was painted in dark color on the outside. There were benches inside. The capacity was corresponding to two trucks, so 50 to 60 persons, perhaps some more. The prisoners had to place the container next to the vehicle and they were connected with a hose (maybe two). The hose ended inside the vehicle under the bench. The container was operated by a SS man, who opened the valve. After 30 min the same SS man opened the back door of the vehicle and ordered us to throw out the corpses."

According to this description refering to an early action, the gas bottle was either not yet mounted at the vehicle or empty and it was more convenient just to place gas bottles next to the vehicle.

"This van was prepared especially for this purpose on the yard of the Soldier's Home (Gestapo in Poznan). 4 prisoners from our group...had to
line the interior of the van with plywood. There was a gas bottle
connected to the van, which was was opened when the van was loaded with the
ill."

"The ill were brought to forest with a truck and sent into the moving van. Two full loads of a truck fit into the moving van. As soon as the moving van was filled, the gas bottles were opened. After 20 minutes, the vehicle drove to the pits, in which the corpses were thrown by the prisoners."

A tentative piece of evidence on the origin of the gas van is provided by the testimony of Gustav S., Arbeitsdienstführer of concentration camp Sachsenhausen, who testified that a gas van constructed in Sachsenhausen was sent to Stralsund in 1938 to kill mentally ill people (however, as far as it is known, the killings were done by the SS-Sturmbann Eimann in late 1939 by shooting [10]). According to Gustav S. gas vans were also sent to the "Umsiedlungsstab" (resettlement staff) and the "Bataillon Sauer" in Posznan until about June 1940 [11], which is a reference to the Umwandererzentralstelle (Central Emigration Office) in Poznan and its official Albert Sauer. As pointed out by historian Götz Aly, there was a close connection between the settlement of ethnic Germans from the Baltics and killing of mentally ill patients by SS-Sturmbann Eimann in Pomerania and West-Prussia and Sonderkommando Lange in the Wartheland in September 1939 - April 1940 [12]. There is no corroborative evidence for the construction of these gas vans in Sachsenhausen though (this is not to be confused with the much later experimental use of homicidal gas vans operating with engine exhaust in Autumn 1941 in Sachsenhausen).

Albert Widmann of the Criminal Technical Institute testified that "I knew that Kaiser's Kaffee transport vehicles with
carbon monoxide bottles were used in the East" [13]. The RKPA driver Alfred B.
observed a "vehicle with box with the
inscription 'Kaisers Kaffegeschäft' in Poznan and the vehicle was
supposed to be a gassing van" [14]. According to Erich W. of the Gestapo Posen "I once saw
on the yard of our Stapo building a closed truck of the company Kaiser...a member of our office told me the vehicle belonged to the Sonderkommando [Lange]" [15].

Several other witnesses of cleared asylums, which are cited further below - Hans-Hermann Renfranz, Gwidon L., Szczepan B., Bogdan O. -, recalled
that the sides of the vehicle brought by the SS Sonderkommando bore the inscription "Kaiser's-Kaffee-Geschäft" (without or without the possessive suffix).

Kaiser's-Kaffee-Geschäft was one of the leading shop seller of so called
colonial goods at the time. Hence, it appears that Lange obtained a trailer from the company and that the
inscription was kept for camouflage reasons or only poorly painted over.

Some authors suppose that Sonderkommando Lange had two or three different gas vans [16]. Multiple gas vans are tentatively supported by the testimonies of Gustav S. and Albert Widmann, but the absence of eyewitnesses sightings of more than one gas van simultaneously at the various asylums sheds doubt on this interpretation.

What follows is not an exhaustive overview on the Euthanasia killings by Sonderkommando Lange, but it is limited to those on which the sources on the use of a gas van could be examined. For further actions see Volker Rieß, Die Anfänge der Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens in Danzig und Wartheland 1939/40 (1995) & Patrick Montague, Chelmno and the Holocaust (2012).

Kosten

Lange's mobile gassing unit was reliably seen upon the clearing of the asylum in Kosten (Koscian) in mid-January 1940. The clearing of the facility is shown by contemporary German documents, such as a report entitled "take-over of the Provincial Asylum Koscian by the Wehrmacht" of 24 January 1940, where it reads that "it was ascertained that all buildings except for two in the old part of the asylum have been made available on the due date. The latter [two buildings] will be temporarily used for accommodating patient transports from Lauenberg and Treptow" [17].

According to the German male nurse Wilhelm H., the SS commando loaded the mentally ill - first the Kosten patients and after this clearing also those who had arrived since then from Lauenberg - on a vehicle "similar to a furniture truck, drawn by a tractor" and it was rumoured "that the engine exhaust is directed into the truck" [18]. The asylum doctor Gwidon L. remembered that "a pipe was mounted from the inside to the engine" [19]. The Polish male nurse Szczepan B. made the crucial observation that "the big vehicle was sheet metal plated without windows and a big iron door in the back. Below the vehicle was mounted a container with pipes into the inside of the vehicle" [20].

Kochanowka

The State Psychiatric hospital Kochanowka near Lodz was cleared in March 1940 [20b]. The testimony of Waclaw Berlowski on the gas van is dubious on the alleged repair carried out by him and the connection to the engine as pointed out by the historian Patrick Montague. More convincing is the testimony of the Sonderkommando prisoner Henryk Mania that "[t]hey were loaded onto trucks which transported them under armed SS escort to the forest. [...] We were ordered to take the patients from the truck to the dugout in which they were gassed. I believe gas from a cylinder was used but I can't remember how it was introduced into the interior".

Warta

In March/April 1940, mentally ill people were killed with the gas van at the asylum in Warta. The asylum director Hans-Hermann Renfranz described the action as follows:
[21]

"It was a vehicle with a tractor, the vehicle was jacked up to it. It was a grey vehicle. Each time the commando forced 60 patients into it and transported them away. The Kommando was a few days in Warta. I estimate that more than 200 patients were transported away. They told me that the patients are brought into the General Gouvernement....The time between the individual trips was not enough to travel to the General Gouvernement."

"I learnt from a member of the commando that the patients had been gassed. He had approached me as doctor, because he became crazy. He told me that he is hearing the sound of the gas all the time. It was the person who closed and opened the gas valve."

East-Prussia/Soldau

The unit was so successful with its clearings of asylums in the Warthegau that the Higher SS and Police Leader of East PrussiaWilhelm Rediess requested the men to liquidate asylums in his province as well. From 21 May to 8 June 1940, Sonderkommando Lange "evacuated" 1,558 "burdensome persons" plus 250 to 300 mentally ill people from annexed Zichenau, who had been deported for that purpose to the so-called Durchgangslager Soldau (Dzialdowo). The Higher SS and Police Leader of the Warthegau Wilhelm Koppe charged the operation of Sonderkommando Lange with 10 RM per person and demanded 15,580 RM from his counterpart in East-Prussia (documents 2, 4 and 5).

These mentally ill people were not transited through Soldau, but killed at the spot as it is borne out by the files of the later SS internal investigation against the Soldau commandant Hans Krause. According to the interrogation protocol of Friedrich Schlegel of the Inspecteur of the Security Police and SD in East Prussia of 3 June 1943, Soldau was established as camp for the "liquidation of these persons [Polish intelligentsia]" and "the mentally ill prisoners, who had been sent on special order, were
liquidated by a special Kommando of the Inspector of Posen, under
the constant supervision of SS-Obergruppenführer Redies[s]" (document 11). His superior Otto Rasch confirmed in his interrogation of 16 June 1943 that "in
the winter, 1939/40, I had established the Soldau transit camp
especially for the purpose of carrying out unostentatiously the
liquidations [of Polish intelligentsia]" and that "insane persons were transferred to the camp on special order and shot" (document 12).

Along shooting as mentioned by Rasch, one may suppose that Sonderkommando Lange also employed its special technique to kill the victims. According to the Soldau resident (?) Kurt H., the victims were brought away also with a closed truck bearing the inscription "Kaisers Kaffee Geschäft" [30]. The Sonderkommando prisoner Henryk Mania confirmed the use of the gas van in Soldau:
[30b]

"We dug pits in the forest that could be reached by crossing a small river near Dzialdowo. [...] I believe the patients had been taken from the hospitals to the camp in Dzialdowo, from where they were transported the next day to the execution site in the forest. Here the patients were led to the special vehicle and gassed. If I remember correctly, gas cylinders were also used in this instance."

Following the killing of the mentally ill people from East-Prussia, Sonderkommando Lange celebrated a "farewell and comrade's evening" in Soldau with the Higher SS and Police Leader Wilhelm Rediess, who donated small boxes made of amber with dedication of the Gauleiter of East-Prussia Erich Koch to the members of the Sonderkommando (document 1 on Wendelin Seith; Lange is known to have received such gift from Koch, too [29]).

The Netherlands

Around the turn of 1940/41 the Sonderkommando could recover from its murderous activity and was sent to the Netherlands "as requested by
its men. I know that the Reichsführer-SS has placed particular emphasis
on the care of these men assigned to this burdensome task" as the Higher SS and Police Leader Rediess wrote towards Himmler's adjutant Karl Wolff in October 1940 (document 3). Their stay in the Netherlands costed more than 3000 RM (document 5).

Srem

Another killing site of the mobile gas chamber was the asylum in Srem
in June 1941. According to its clerk Antoni H. the patients were loaded
on a "big hermetically closed trailer made of steel. Some pipes were
running from the tractor mounted with a big container, probably for the
gas, to the trailer" [22].
The location of the "container" at the tractor explains why some
witnesses assumed that engine exhaust was directed through the pipes.

Tiegenhof

In June/July 1941, the gassing vehicle was spotted at Tiegenhof in Gnesen (Dziekanka in Gniezno)
(note that the earlier victims in December 1939 and January 1940 were
gassed at Fort VII or driven to the gas van, respectively [23]).

The Polish male nurse of the asylum Bogdan O. testified on an "entirely
closed vehicle...with a tractor...the pipe from the engine to the box
caught our attention" [24]. The gas van was also mentioned by several German nurses:

Maria L.: "a big vehicle with
the SS men mentioned arrived...drawn by a small tractor. The vehicle was
kind of a small furniture van" [25].

Klara W.: "a kind of furniture van without windows, but small roof
lights.
This vehicle had a small trailer with a hose connected to the big
van...inside the vehicle there were benches where we placed the ill
people. There was some straw on the floor...The SS men closed the double
doors and left the asylum" [26] (note the opposite arrangement of the vehicle as described by other witnesses).

Gertrud W.: the patients "were picked up with a big vehicle,
inside it was dark, because there were no windows" [27].

The
local SD man Georg U. noticed "a vehicle which appeared to me like a moving van"
and was told from the asylum head that the ill were to be picked up by a
"Kriminalkommissar...Lange or Langer" [28].

Baranoviche/Minsk

On 16 August 1941, Sonderkommando Lange was requested by the Higher Police and SS Leader Center Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski to his headquarter in Baranoviche in White Ruthenia (document 6). His follow-up message of 18 August 1941 "to get a personal demonstration of the L[ange]'s procedure...when he becomes available" (order of sentences reversed) suggests that the unit was busy at the time (doument 7), possibly with killing uncurable Jews in the Warthegau [30b].

The day earlier, on 15 August 1941, Himmler attended a show shooting in Minsk and the visit the Novinki asylum near Minsk [31]. According to von dem Bach-Zelewski, Himmler ordered to clear the facility using a more human method than shooting[32]. In the light of the intercepted radio messages and that Himmler had to approve the actions of Lange (see next section), it seems plausible that von dem Bach-Zewelski, Himmler and the Einsatzgruppen B and RKPA head Arthur Nebe had discussed in Minsk the use of Sonderkommando Lange.

In mid-September 1941, Nebe called his expert on explosives and toxicology Albert Widmann from the Criminal Technical Institute of the RKPA to apply explosive and engine exhaust on mentally ill people in Minsk and Mogilev, respectively (see also German Footage of a Homicidal Gassing with Engine Exhaust. Part 4: Responsibility (II)). A similar gassing with engine exhaust in a provisional stationary gas chamber - as done by Widmann's team in Mogilev - was also carried out around the same time in the Novinki asylum near Minsk visited by Himmler the month earlier [33]. Although it stands to reason that Widmann's team performed the gassing in Minsk as well, none of the participants testifying on the Mogilev experiment mentioned another such action in Minsk. Therefore, it cannot be entirely excluded that Sonderkommando Lange has to be accounted for the Minsk gassing.

On 21 September 1941, the Quartermaster in General Eduard Wagner talked about the "behaviour towards inmates of asylums in the occupied territories, on 26 September 1941 about "mental institutions [in sector of the Army Group] North. Russians regard the feeble-minded as holy. Killing nevertheless necessary" and on 1 October 1941 on the "Novgorod mental institutions" [34]. As Einsatzgruppe A rejected to carry out "clearings" of asylums merely "needed as quarters" by the army [35], Freyberg requested Koppe on 3 October 1941 "to sent Sonderkommando Lange with
suitable repair [means: apparatus] for the clearing of three of
their asylums near Novgorod" with a JU 52 provided by the army (document 8 and 9). Himmler granted the request and ordered that "the Sonderkommando is to be sent immediately" (document 10).

It is unclear whether Sonderkommando Lange actually ended up in Novgorod and if so, how the killings were done. The limited capacity of a JU 52 renders it unlikely that a gas van was supposed to be sent to Novgorod, while the reference to "suitable apparatus" suggests a more sophisticated killing than shooting the patients. They were quite possibly meant to bring carbon monoxide bottles and pipes to prepare provisional gas chambers in the asylums near Novgorod.

Who?

The deputy head of the Gestapo in Poznan since March 1940 and Lange's
tennis partner Alfred T. admitted that Lange was a part-time mass killer, who "travelled with his
Sonderkommando and the gas van in the Warthegau in the second half of
1940 and probably also in 1941 to exterminate people", but denied that his employer was anyhow involved in Lange's special work in the field and that in "[a]
letter from Gruppenführer Müller (as secret state affair) it was said that the chain of order goes from Sonderkommando Lange via the RSHA to
the chief of the Security Police" [36]. The German documents indicate that Sonderkommando Lange was subordinated to the Higher SS and Police Leader of the Warthegau Wilhelm Koppe (documents 2, 4-10), who requested the permission for its operation directly from the Reichsführer-SS Himmler, in contrast to Koppe's vehement post-war denial of his own responsability
[37] only admitting some economic support to explain away documents 2, 4 and 5.

The actual members of Sonderkommando Lange have remained largely unknown. Other than Lange himself only Wendelin Seith from the Gestapo Samter has been definitely identified so far (documents 1 and 14). The historian Michael Alberti has compiled a pool of 15 candidates from the Security Polices Poznan and Lodz based on their appearance on a proposal list for the war merit cross II of 20 January 1942, which features two members (Lohr and Plate) of the stationary Sonderkommando Kulmhof who Lange might have taken with him from his earlier mobile commando [38]. Future research might lead to further identification of the members of this mass murder unit.

After
many obstacles, I have now received your small box of amber with the
dedication of the Gauleiter meant as "little memory of East Prussia". My
joy is very great, because this gift is the only acknowledgment of our
mission, apart from the unforgettable farewell evening with the
comrades, of which you have experienced only a fraction.

The
mission would have been none if it had been done by us for the sake of
an advantage, and yet I was put to a hard trial when I asked in Posen for 30 days (72 have to be granted per year) and I was threatened with
dismissal, if I insist on my holiday claim.

You will understand that your gift makes me twice as happy under these
circumstances.

The Higher SS- and Police Leader with the Reich Gouvernor in Posen in the corps area XXI

Posen, 18 Oktober 1940

L/Ho

Secret State Affair!

To the Higher SS and Police Leader Nordost

SS-Gruppenführer Sporrenberg

Königsberg

Subject: Costs of Sonderkommando Lange

The
so called Sonderkommando Lange, which has been put under my command for
special tasks, was ordered to Soldau in East Prussia from 21 May to 8
June 1940, according to the agreement made with the
Reichssicherheitshauptamt, and during that time evacuated 1,558 patients
from the Soldau transit camp.

At that time I arranged
with SS-Gruppenführer Rediess that an amount of RM 10.- would have to be
paid for the evacuation of each patient. There would, therefore be a
sum of RM 15,480 to be paid into the account of the SS Oberabschnitt
Warthe, according to the agreement.

The leader of the
Sonderkommando Lange, Kriminalkommissar Lange, according to his
statement, at the beginning of his duty in Soldau received an advance of
RM 2,000.- from the Inspekteur of the Security Police and the SD in
Königsberg, SS-Oberführer Rasch, in order to defray his current
expenses.

May I, therefore, ask that this amount of RM
2,000.- be refunded directly to the Inspekteur of the Security Police
and the SD in Königsberg and that the remaining amount of RM 13,580.- be
paid to the SS Oberabschnitt Warthe as soon as possible.

The Higher SS and Police Leader
[signature]
SS-Gruppenführer

The Higher SS and Police Leader
with the Oberpräsident of East Prussia
in the corps area I

Königsberg (Prussia),
30 October 1940

Journal no. A/69/40 - Secret state affair

Original
to the Higher SS and Police Leader North
SS-Gruppenführer Rediess
in Oslo
please comment and return.

Extract
of a letter of SS-Gruppenfürer Rediess to SS-Obergruppenführer Wolff of
22 October 1940 concerning horse racing and horse breeding (the letter
was passed on to Jüttner)

Subject: Sonderkommando Lange

...In
the matter of Sonderkommando Lange you have told me on its day that the
detachment will be deployed to Holland as requested by
its men. I know that the Reichsführer-SS has placed particular emphasis
on the care of these men assigned to this burdensome task.

The Higher SS and Police Leader
with the Reichskommissar of the occupied Norwegian areas

Journal no. 38/40 - secret state affair

[SECRET STATE AFFAIR]

To the Chief of the personal staff Reichsführer-SS
- SS-Gruppenführer Wolff -

Berlin SW 11

Prinz-Albrecht-Str. 9

Dear Wolff!

I
submit to you a demand of the SS-Gruppenführer Koppe - addressed
to the Higher SS and Police Leader Northeast - SS-Gruppenführer
Sporrenberg -, which he has sent me to reply.

As can be
seen from the letter by SS-Gruppenführer Koppe, this is about the
evacuation of 1,558 prisoners of the East Prussian provincial asylums.
As far I know, one has to add 250 to 300 mentally ill
(Poles) from the East Prussian region of Zichenau.

At
the time, I requested upon a visit to SS-Gruppenführer Koppe - after
obtaining the permission from the Reichsführer-SS - that the Kommando Lange is made available to me. In this context, Gruppenführer Koppe had
mentioned the consideration of RM 10.- for each patient. I could not
take this demand seriously, as it was asked to make the payment to the account of the SS Main Section of Warthe.

I have always
regarded the matter as in the interest of the Reich, even more so
because by agreement between myself and the Oberpräsident of East
Prussia it was meant to preserve the asylum Wehlau as an accommodation
of the Waffen-SS, and providing this asylum as consideration to the
Provincial administration. The SS Main Sector Northeast and the Higher
SS and Police Leader Northeast had made no further demands to the
provincial administration from this action.

If the
Reichsführer-SS has decided in the sense of the letter of the
Gruppenführer Koppe, the demand needs to be addressed to the
provincial administration of East Prussia.

As far as I know, the advance payment to
Kriminalkommissar Lange by the Inspecteur of the Security Police and of
the SS - SS-Oberführer Dr. Rasch - was taken from
means of the Reich. Already because of this, I had the view that the
matter was an order of the Reich. Because of the peculiarity of the
demand, especially with respect to the difficulty with delivering mail
in Norway, I am going to sent the matter through you, with the request
to get the decision of the Reichsführer SS, and if necessary to pass
on the decision to the SS Main Sector Northeast.

The Higher SS and Police Leader
with the Reich Governor in Posen
corps area XXI

L/Ho

Posen, 22 February 1941

Secret State Affair!

To the
Chief of the Personal Staff of the Reichsführer-SS
SS-Gruppenführer Wolff

Berlin SW 11
Prinz-Albrecht Str. 8

[urgent! telephone conversation with Obf. Brack]

In
June 1940 I took over from the Higher SS and Police Leader Northeast
1,558 burdensome persons for the purpose of lodging them somwhere else. To carry out this agreement reached with Gruppenführer Rediess,
a Kommando of my agency was obliged to stay for 17 days in East
Prussia.

My Inspector of the Security Police and the
SD, SS-Standartenführer Damzog, and the Inspector of the Security Police
and the SD in Königsberg, SS-Brigadeführer Rasch, agreed upon RM 10.-
for transportation costs and other expenses for each person to be
transferred. As far as I know, Gauleiter Koch declared himself willing
to assume all costs arising from this assignment. The amount in question
has therefore no doubt long since been received by the Higher SS and Police
Leader Northeast. In spite of repeated admonitions, I have not yet
succeeded in getting from the Higher SS and Police Leader Northeast this
sum of RM 15,580 due me.

SS-Gruppenführer Sporrenberg
maintains that he is not competent for the payment, since Gruppenführer
Rediess did give the order for the deportation. During a conversation,
Gruppenführer Sporrenberg once told me that the Oberabschnitt Northeast
might also got part of the sum spent for this purpose.

A
few months ago SS-Gruppenführer Rediess informed me from Oslo that at
the order of the Reichsführer-SS you would make the decision with regard
to the payment of the costs of the transport.

I would
therefore be obliged if the Higher SS and Police Leader Northeast could
be instructed to pay the outstanding amount of RM 1,580 due me on the
basis of the agreement made. I may add in this connection that out of
the above mentioned sum I also have to defray part of the costs,
amounting to more than 3,000 RM of the Sonderkommando Lange's stay in
Holland, which was ordered by the Reichsführer-SS.

At the order of Sturmbannführer
BRANDT I provide you with the following telex regarding decision
Reichsführer SS KONRAD, Scharführer.

"SSD Posen commander of the
order police number 36. Secret. To the Reichsführer SS, special train
Heinrich; just now, the senior physician FREYBERG of the army high
command has called at the instigation of lieutenant HEFELMANN [of] the
Führer's chancellery and requests to sent Sonderkommando Lange with
suitable repair [prob. means: apparatus] for the clearing of three of
their asylums near NOWGOROD at lake Ilmen. The senior physician FREYBERG
agreed to sent a JU 52 to Posen on the morning of 5 October, so that
the chief inspector LANGE can immediately start working with about 5
staff members. The senior physician FREYBERG emphasized the urgent need
of their immediate arrival, because the inmates are suffering from
dysentery and the asylums are urgently needed for troop quarters. I
request a decision of the Reichsführer SS if the dispatch of
Sonderkommando Lange can be considered under the circumstances. I would
be grateful for a prompt notification, since some preparations for this
action may be necessary. The higher SS and police leader, signed KOPPE,
SS Gruppenführer."

23 SRR de DSQ Nr 19 215 2 Tle 175 123 SRR 3742
Hauptsturmführer GROTHMANN.
Addition
to telex 36. Gruppenführer Koppe requests in another telex of 8:30 pm
for accelerated decision by the Reichsführer SS, since he will be phoned
by Oberstarzt Freyberg from the Army High Command on the morning of 4
October 1941, who wants to know if he can rely on the support from
Kommissar Lange. Signed KONRAD, SS Untersturmführer

20. DQH de DPJ SQM Nr. 7 1345 113 SQP 155.
To the Higher SS and Police Leader Posen, Gruppenführer Goppe [sic!].
The Sonderkommando is to be sent immediately. The request is granted.
Signed H. Himmler.

born
4 March 1912 in Leipzig, married, deistic, living
Berlin-Charlottenburg, Herderstrasse 12 and after being informed about
the matter of the interrogation states as follows:

[...]

After the Polish campaign ended, the commander of the security
police and the SD has continuously transferred persons of Polish nationality by the Einsatzkommandos
to the state police
headquarters Königsberg. I remember that a large part of these people came from the Leslau area, they were members of Polish intelligentsia.

[...]

After
the new Inspekteur, SS-Brigadeführer Dr. Rasch, had commenced his
activities, he informed me that the Chief of the Security Police and the
SD, SS-Gruppenführer Heydrich, has decided after the issue was presented to him to liquidate these
members of the Polish intelligentsia as retaliation for the murderers in Bromberg. For this reason, SS-Gruppenführer Dr. Rasch personally examined the individual prisoners in the camps in question. For the sake of camouflaging, the Poles in question had to sign a
declaration of the content that they agreed with their deportation to
the Generalgouvernement.

[...]

In mid-January 1940, SS-Brigadeführer Dr. Rasch told me
that the Polish military barracks in Soldawa, now Soldau, were suitable
for this purpose. At about the same time SS-Brigadeführer Rasch also explained to me
that SS-Gruppenführer Heydrich agreed with the liquidation of
these persons in the camp of Soldau.

[...]

The
mentally ill prisoners, who had been sent on special order, were
liquidated by a special Kommando of the Inspekteur of Posen, under
the constant supervision of SS-Obergruppenführer Redies [sic!]. In my opinion, around 600 prisoners died and were liquidated in the camp. Excluded from this are the mentally ill prisoners.

born 7 December 1891 in Friedrichsruh, living Berlin-Charlottenburg, Sendsburger Allee 23, appears and states as follows:

I
was inspector of the Security Police and of the Security Service in
Königsberg from November 1939 until November 1941. When I took over the
office I found there a large number of political prisoners, the greater
part of which were arrested by the detachments of the Group of the
Security Police which was disbanded before my time. The prisoners were
dispersed in several camps, and were examined by me, that is through
the State Police Offices, in order to settle the whole matter. Thereby
it was discovered that some could be released, while for others transfer
to a concentration camp had to be applied, and that it would be
best to liquidate the remainder, who consisted of political activists of Polish
movements. At that time I reported these facts to the
Chief of the Security Police, SS-Gruppenführer Heydrich, who concurred
but made it a condition that the liquidation must be carried out unostentatiously.

In
Winter 1939/40, I had established the Soldau transit camp
especially for the purpose of carrying out unostentatiously the necessary
liquidations.

[...]

In addition to the above described circles of people, insane persons were transferred to the camp on special order and shot.

Lange, Herbert
born 29 September 1909 (35 years old)
member of the SS since: 1 March 1933 SS no.: 93,501
last promotion: 1 September 1941 Party comrade no.: 1159 583
position: Krim.Rat in the RSiHA
served: 1937 and 1938 each a training for the RSiHA put in a reserved occupation
rank reached: private of the reserve and candidate for officer of the reserve
front duty: Securiy Police service since 1939 in Poland, afterwards until 1942 in Posen.

Awards: War merit cross II and I with swords
injured: no
married: yes - since: 27 September 1935
age of the wife: 32 years
number of chilren: 2
Age of the youngest child: 6 years
confession: deistic
degree of fitness: for war

Evaluation by:
Reichssicherheitshauptamt.

SS-Hauptsturmführer
Lange, who belongs to the NSDAP since 1932, was already actively
engaged in the movement before the takeover of power. SS
Hauptsturmführer Lange is described as a well-qualified
official, who has proved himself particularly well during the service in Poland.

The chief of the Reichsicherheitshauptamt
informs that the Reichsführer-SS has approved the
promotion of SS-Hauptsturmführer Lange to SS-Sturmbannführer on
occasion of a talk on the use of the Security Police and SD in course of action "20.7.1944".

The
Chief of the Reichsicherheitshauptamt therefore requests the promotion
not to begin on 9 November 1944, but with immediate effect.

4 comments:

As a side note, it's unlikely that any gassings of the mentally disabled took place in or near Novgorod.

ChGK doesn't seem to know anything about such gassings. The 200 psychiatric patients who were murdered at the Kolmovo hospital in September were poisoned with scopolamine injections, the rest, apparently about 600, died later from starvation. Not sure what other hospitals are meant, but the starvation in Kolmovo is an argument that gassings did not take place there and by extension elsewhere near Novgorod, since the Kolmovo patients were the natural targets for such gassings.

For the first time, the historian and Senior Research Scientist of the History School in St. Petersburg Boris Kovalyov took part in this Conference. His report was addressed to the fact of demolishing of Kolmovo Psychiatric Hospital during the World War II: "Working in Germany I got some unique pictures from my German colleagues - single-frame photography of patients some days before their physical destruction... By the beginning of occupation, there were 800 patients. There was a question concerning their total physical destruction, even debates between SS and so-called Wehrmacht Christians. After all, a certain compromise was reached: 200 patients were killed with lethal injection; other 600 had an alternative - to die of starvation in the next several months."